He’s joking, BTW. And if you didn’t see this post coming, then you must not have logged on to Twitter today. It really does seem like every. single. brand. has taken the opportunity to piggyback off this twelfth anniversary of 9/11 in order to increase exposure…or something like that. Here’s the tweet that’s been irritating everyone in media:

The image was tacky, sure—and the social team quickly issued an apology and deleted it.

We apologize to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste. The image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy.

General response to these messages is mixed: some see co-opting 9/11 as the epitome of tastelessness while others note that none of these messages, with the exception of AT&T and possibly Blue Bloods, are directly selling any particular product.

We’re not quite sure how we feel. We certainly can’t claim to “own” memories of a particularly traumatic event, but while this isn’t a new trend, Twitter seems more offended than usual this year. Maybe the public—and especially those of us who work in media—is simply more aggressive about “shaming” brands whose messages they don’t like.

Some of these posts got solid engagement numbers, even if they inspired journalists to attack en masse. Was it a mistake for so many brands to sign on?

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